A small coin hopper equipment is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application 10-333332 by this applicant. The Japanese Patent Application 10-333332 is laid-open in public as Japanese Patent Disclosure 2000-132723. FIG. 10 shows a perspective view which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application 10-333332. FIG. 11 shows a perspective view of the coin hopper of FIG. 10 with the upper part thereof removed. This small coin hopper has an electric motor 15. Motor 15 has a driving shaft with a projecting end located directed downwardly. The small coin hopper has a primary gear (not shown) which is fixed on the projecting end of the driving shaft. The coin hopper also has a head 45 for storing a plurality of coins and a disk 41 within the bottom of head 45, for releasing the coins one by one. In addition, the coin hopper has a second gear 25 for rotating the disk 41. Further, the coin hopper has gears 17 and 23 forming a gear train for coupling the second gear 25 and said primary gear, and so on.
In the conventional coin hopper as described above, a level base board 31 was used for miniaturizing the overall construction. The hopper used an electric motor placed at the corner of base board 31. The gear train is placed under the base board 31. However, in the prior configuration there was a limit to the degree of miniaturization of the overall coin hopper.